EDWARD LAW
SHEFFIELD SILVERSMITHS
PART 2 (1775-1792).
© 2000 Edward J Law.
Daniel Holy & Co. registered their first mark
on 19th July 1776, the partners being
George Woodhead and Daniel Holy, brother of Thomas, who had
entered into partnership the previous month. It seems that
Woodhead, who was a merchant, was not a working partner and Holy
was allowed a salary of £70 pa for managing the business. A
second mark entered in September 1778
may have represented a partnership
change; possibly the introduction of Samuel Wainwright with whom
Holy and Woodhead were in partnership in 1780. Wainwright's place
was taken shortly after by Joseph Drabble.
A new partnership under the style of Daniel Holy, Wilkinson & Co. was entered into from 1st January 1783 with Robert Frederick Wilkinson and Robert Robinson joining the existing partners. That partnership ran its full course of seven years with a new fourteen year agreement being entered into from 1st January 1790. The output of the concern included tea kitchens, coffee pots, cruet frames and candlesticks. Woodhead left the firm at that time and Ebenezer Parker, a witness to the partnership agreement of 1783, and probably an employee, became a junior partner. That partnership also ran its full course. On its dissolution at 31st December 1803 Drabble, Wilkinson and Robinson left the firm, the latter two establishing the firm of J Drabble & Co. with James Drabble, Joseph's son.
The firm of Daniel Holy & Co. continued, presumably using the original mark of 1776 as no other was registered, the partners as from 1st January 1804 being Holy, Parker, William Cresswell Webb, William Hall and William Hadfield. The agreement gives some indication of the specialisation which was one of the reasons why much of the Sheffield silver production was in the hands of partnerships. Many partnerships had a 'rider', what we should now call a traveller, who was often also the principal bookkeeper: in this case it was Webb, who appears to have been recruited from Birmingham. Hall was to work at the business of a "pierce worker" and Hadfield at that of a die sinker. Webb left the firm in 1808 and the remaining partners continued to 1812 when Ebenezer Parker died.
In 1812 the three remaining partners were joined by George Holy, Daniel's son, and Ebenezer Parker, nephew of the previous partner of that name, the style of the firm becoming Daniel & George Holy & Co. The agreement of 1804 had provided for both George Holy and Ebenezer Parker the younger to be employed in the firm, and for George to be admitted a partner on attaining the age of twentyone if he so elected.
Daniel Holy died in 1831 and Wilson records that in 1833 the firm ceased to be customers of Read & Lucas, the Sheffield precious metal refiners, where they had been customers since 1776, having moved into steel making.
* * *
When Robert Frederick Wilkinson and Robert Robinson left Daniel Holy & Co. at the end of 1803 they went into partnership with James Drabble, Henry Mylins (or Mylius), George Battie and Alexander Goodwin Turner, registering the mark
on 3rd January 1805. The partnership was
dissolved in May 1810 after which the partner's names do not
appear in the Silver Register.
The firm of Joseph Shemeld & Co. of Arundel Street, which is first noted in the silver register in 1777 originated from the cutlery business which had been carried on by Joseph Shemeld, in premises in Shemeld Croft, on his own account down to July 1767. At that date he entered into an equal partnership with Jonathan Hague, filesmith, and Jonathan Parkin, factor, to carry on the trade of cutlers or any other trade they should think proper. Their first mark
which was entered in July 1777 followed
the creation of a new partnership from March 1776 between Joseph
Shemeld, Jonathan Parkin, Jonathan Hague and John Staniforth. The
partners, all described as merchants, were to trade as factors
and cutlers, and the only output of silver noted are blades and
handles. The partnership ran its full term of fourteen years to 1st
March 1790 when Joseph Shemeld retired and his son, James Shemeld,
and Edward Oakes took his quarter interest equally. Oakes had
been a partner in Fenton, Creswick, Oakes & Co. until its
dissolution on 24th December 1789. Following internal disputes
Oakes withdrew, selling his interest to James Shemeld who entered
into a further seven year partnership equally with Parkin,
Staniforth and Hague from March 1792.
* * *
A mark
entered in 1781 by Shemeld, Parkin &
Co., who were to submit handles and sets of furniture (probably
for knife cases), may have related to the foregoing concern, but
as they were, in 1781, four years into a stable partnership which
had already entered a mark, it seems unlikely. It is more likely
that it was in fact the mark of a separate partnership, very
probably the predecessor to the firm of Staniforth, Parkin &
Co. whose mark
was registered in 1783 by John Staniforth,
Jonathan Parkin & Co. The composition of later partnerships
suggests that Joseph Shemeld may well have been one of the
company. A successor to the partnership was described as
merchants and manufacturers of hardware, a distinction of trade
which no doubt enabled the involvement of some of the partners of
Shemeld & Co.; the output appears to have been restricted to
handles. That there were strong links between the two firms is
indicated by the personnel of successive partnerships and by the
location of both concerns in Arundel Street. By 1788 the firm,
known as Staniforth, Parkin, Hague & Shemeld, consisted of
James Staniforth, Jonathan Parkin, Jonathan Hague and Joseph
Shemeld and was trading from Parkin's premises in Arundel Street.
They were succeeded in 1788 by Shemeld, Parkin, Oakes & Co, a partnership for fourteen years between James Shemeld, Jonathan Parkin, Edward Oakes and Joseph Shemeld, in the same premises. Provision was made for Parkin to assign his interest to Thomas Bradshaw Hoole on his attaining the age of twentyone, when the style of the firm would become Shemeld, Oakes & Hoole. It is not known whether Hoole joined the firm; he died in 1799 aged 26.
It seems that Thomas Settle who was a partner at the same time in both Richard Morton & Co. and Samuel Roberts & Co., on leaving the latter established a partnership with Thomas Warris and others as Thomas Settle &, registering the mark
in July 1780. It appears the firm were
cutlers, the only items noted in the day-books being handles.
Settle entered a mark
on his own the following March, but
again it is thought that was done to establish the mark should he
work on his own at some future date. When the firm of Joseph
Wilson & Co. was established in 1793 both he and Warris were
partners.
Nathaniel Smith & Co. was founded in 1780 and their mark
entered in August that year by
Nathaniel and George Smith and James Creswick. Nathaniel had
previously been a partner in the firms of Richard Morton & Co.
and Samuel Roberts & Co. They and Thomas Law & Co. are
said to have been the only firms which traded both as cutlers and
general silversmiths. Entries in the day-books seem to indicate
an early emphasis on cutlery with silver wares predominating from
1784. In January 1793 the mark
was registered, noting the change of
style to Smiths, Knowles, Creswick, the partners comprising
William and George Smith, George Knowles, James Creswick, William
Nicholson, Robert Tate and Hewan Hoult. From the output noted it
would appear that the original mark of the firm continued to be
used down to the dissolution by "effluxion of time" of
the partnership in 1810, when William Smith, George Knowles and
James Creswick were all dead. The surviving members formed a new
partnership in the name of Smith, Tate, Nicholson & Hoult and
entered the mark
on 1st November 1810 and continued to
trade down to 1820 in which year George Smith and William
Nicholson retired from the partnership. A directory of 1822
records Smith, Tate & Co. and although no further mark was
registered Jackson notes
as the mark of Smith, Tate, Hoult &
Tate, found on silver from 1821 to 1823.
The mark
for John Love & Co. was entered in
May or June 1783 by John Love, John Silversides, William Darby,
Joseph Waterhouse, Charles Mottram, Thomas Stafford and Joseph
Morton. The same mark was used by succeeding partnerships under
the styles of Love, Darby, Stafford & Co. and Love, Morton
& Co., other partners being Henry Sikes, John Browne, Charles
Elliott White, gent of Tideswell, Derbyshire and Thomas Toefield
Esq. of Wilsick, Yorkshire. No output has been noted after 1801
when the partnership of Love, Morton & Co. was succeeded by
Morton, Browne & Co. in the persons of Joseph Morton, John
Browne, John Rowe and William Hoyland. The partnership was
dissolved in April 1808, no silver mark was entered and no output
is known. Jackson records that the plated mark of John Love &
Co. was often found on tankards and the day-books show that the
firm also produced silver pints.
* * *
William Darby registered a mark
on his own account in November 1785,
from when he proceeded to send quantities of spoons for assay. He
was made bankrupt in 1788.
* * *
After leaving John Love & Co. Thomas Stafford appears to have joined Robert Newton in the firm of Stafford & Newton. That firm is thought to have had only a short existence. Their mark
was registered in October 1787, the only
goods noted in the day-book are a foot and tip, possibly for a
whip. Notice of dissolution of the partnership appeared in June
1789. They did not enter marks individually or in partnership
after that.
In 1783 Joseph Jones, Henry Greenway, Thomas Pasmore, George Kibble, John Weaver and Anthony Handley registered the silver mark
presumably for Henry Greenway & Co.,
although it appears from a partnership dissolution notice of the
following year that the firm went under the style of Joseph Jones
& Co., and it was in that name that cruet tops were sent for
assay in November 1783. Handley is subsequently (1798) noted as a
partner in Richard Morton & Co. Another partnership which
ended in 1784 was that of Charles Hall & Co. though no mark
had been registered and no goods submitted for assay.
The partners in Thomas Pasmore & Co. in 1784 were the executors of Charles Hall, deceased, Joseph Jones, Henry Greenway, George Kibble, John Weaver and Thomas Pasmore, and it may be that the firm was the successor to both Charles Hall & Co. and Joseph Jones & Co. Charles Hall who had previously been a partner in Winter, Parsons & Hall died early in 1783 but left instructions in his will that his executors should continue the partnership he had agreed to enter with Messrs Jones, Greenway, Kibble, Weaver and Pasmore, and advance the monies that he had agreed to advance. Pasmore & Co. did not register a silver mark, but are noted in the day-book sending in a pair of candlesticks for assay in April 1784. It is possible that the firm were principally platers, with any silver production being channelled through the firm of Thomas Fox & Co. in which Pasmore, Kibble and Weaver were partners. The other partners when the firm entered its mark
in June 1784 were Thomas Fox and Luke
Proctor. In December that year George Mettam, their bookkeeper
and warehouseman, joined the partnership, as did Charles Roe in
February 1785. By June of that year Fox had withdrawn and the
style of the firm was changed to Luke Proctor & Co., in which
name the mark
was registered in June 1785. The partners
at that time were Luke Proctor, Thomas Pasmore, George Kibble,
John Weaver, George Mettam and Charles Roe. By 1793 only Proctor,
Kibble and Weaver remained and the partnership was expanded with
the introduction of George Eadon and Robert Gainsford. The latter
was in the firm little more than a year, both he and Proctor
leaving in June 1795. Following their departure Eadon, Kibble and
Weaver traded under that style, though the mark they registered
in June 1795 was
Their London agent, J Williams, wrote to a Sheffield cutler on 1st July 1809 "When Mr Eadon was last in town ...... understood the firm of Eadon, Kibble and Weaver would in a few months cease". This appears to have referred to the departure of Weaver in October 1809, but in fact the firm continued in that style. John Weaver died in 1810. Subsequently William Battie joined the remaining two partners and the firm continued down to 1815, the year of Kibble's death, using the same mark. There is no trace of the surviving partners either individually or in partnerships after that date.
Thomas Pasmore is noted in 1795 trying to establish a London market for scimitar and cutlass blades and their scabbards.
Samuel Kirkby & Co. first registered their mark
in February 1784. Output sent for assay
shows that they were a firm of cutlers. The next mark of the
concern
was registered in December 1793 when the
style had changed to Kirkby, Waterhouse & Co. The partners
who registered the mark were Samuel and James Kirkby, Joseph
Waterhouse, Joseph Elliott and John Hodgson, but partnership
notices indicate that John Watson was also a partner at that time.
He left the firm in 1795 and the five remaining partners
continued until 1808. At that time three of the partners appear
to have formed the firm of James Kirkby & Co., and the other
two joined with others as Thomas Blagden & Co.
* * *
After leaving the firm of Kirkby, Waterhouse & Co. in 1795 John Watson entered the mark
on 24th September 1795 on his own account.
A larger mark in the same format was registered 17th June 1822 by
John Watson & Son. ln between those dates John Watson senior
had been the principal partner in the firm of Watson Pass &
Co., his partners in 1818 being Robert Moss, William Pass, John
Hancock, William Harwood, Lewis Thomas, Francis Dunn and the
executors of John Pass, deceased. There was a partnership change
in 1818 and the remaining partners at the dissolution in 1822
were John Watson, John Hancock, William Harwood, Lewis Thomas and
the executors of Paul Harwood, deceased.
Watson, Pass & Co. did not enter any silver mark and it may be that the firm was essentially a manufacturer of plated wares. Initially at least that was the case with Watson & Co. There is an undated order of about 1796 to Watson & Co. from their London agent calling for a wide range of mainly plated goods, per catalogue numbers. The silver items in the order were fish trowels, tea pots, caddies, sugar basins and cream ewers. They had established export markets at an early date; in 1798 they were enquiring for shipping dates for goods which they had to forward to Kingston, Jamaica. Other markets were Baltimore, Quebec and Bermuda.
The partnership of John Watson & Co. which succeeded Watson, Pass & Co. may have been the same as John Watson & Son, the partners in 1828 being John Watson, John Watson junior and Thomas Watson. John Watson senior died in 1835 and output of silver does not appear to have continued for very long after that date.
* * *
Following the dissolution of Kirkby, Waterhouse & Co., James Kirkby, Joseph Waterhouse and John Hodgson formed the firm of James Kirkby & Co, and in October 1808 entered the mark
There appears to have been a partnership change in 1818 when the firm entered a new mark
It is probable that the partnership ceased in 1822, the former partners creating two firms.
One was Waterhouse, Hodgson & Co. who entered a mark
in June 1822, and appear to have
continued in business into the 1830s, possibly being succeeded by
John Waterhouse, Edward Hatfield & Co. who registered a mark
in 1836.
The other firm which registered after the cessation of Kirkby, Waterhouse & Co. was James Kirkby, Gregory & Co. who entered the mark
in August 1822.
* * *
Thomas Blagden entered the mark
on 5th March 1798, and ten years
later, on 5th December 1808, in partnership with Thomas Hodgson,
Samuel Kirkby, Joseph Elliott and Jonathan Woollin, the mark
for Thomas Blagden & Co. Kirkby
and Elliott had previously been partners in Kirkby, Waterhouse
& Co. until its dissolution in 1808. Blagden died within a
year of the commencement of the partnership and Kirkby was dead
by 1813 but authorised his executors to continue his interest
during the remaining term of the partnership. Thomas Smith
Hodgson, who was dead by 1820, made a similar provision for the
continuation of his interest in his will of 1813. On the evidence
of output it would seem that the firm continued down to 1830
though nothing further is known of the personnel.
The mark
was entered in July 1784 by George
Brittain & Co., a partnership comprising four cutlers, George
Brittain, Jonathan Wilkinson, Peter Brownell and Joseph Ibberson
who entered into a fourteen year partnership from 1st
January 1784 to manufacture cutlery in the existing workshops of
Brittain. None of the partners appear subsequently in the silver
register. The only items noted in the day-book are blades.
Samuel Roberts in his autobiography records that he was brought up in the house in which his father, Samuel Roberts the eider, was a partner. That statement is not as precise as might be wished, Roberts senior being in more than one partnership. He was with both Richard Morton & Co. and Samuel Roberts & Co. from 1773 to 1780, during which period his son would have entered the trade. As the autobiography continues that the partners were not on good terms when he came of age, April 1784, when his father was a partner in Roberts, Eyre, Beldon & Co., successors to Samuel Roberts & Co., we may suppose that his apprenticeship was served in those two partnerships. Because of the differences among the partners his father wished him to start a new concern, and he took as partner, in May 1784, another of his father's apprentices, George Cadman.
No silver mark was registered for the partnership, which was succeeded on 30th January 1786 by Roberts, Cadman & Co., a partnership for fourteen years between Samuel Roberts the younger, George Cadman, and a Unitarian minister, the Rev. Benjamin Naylor, a sleeping partner. The first silver from the firm was sent for assay in June 1786 when they entered the marks.
The partnership agreement records that
the firm would occupy workshops, warehouses, etc, lately erected
by Samuel Roberts the younger in Eyre Street and that funding
would be by a loan of £1,200 from Naylor, and capital of £2,800
to be introduced pro rata to the profit shares of the partners:
Roberts 4; Cadman 1; Naylor 2. Provision was made for Roberts to
be able to assign two of his shares to his father in six years
time, when the latter would be at liberty from his then
connection with Roberts, Eyre, Beldon & Co.
The provision for Roberts senior to enter the partnership does not appear to have been taken up and Naylor is said to have left the firm sometime prior to 1794, taking a financial interest in a Sheffield newspaper, the Iris. Roberts and Cadman entered into another agreement for fourteen years from 2nd July 1798 under the same style, with a capital of £6,000 provided ¾ by Roberts and ¼ by Cadman. The partnership agreements after this have not been seen, but the mark Roberts, Cadman & Co. was not superceeded until 1st July 1826, which may indicate that the partnership of 1798 ran its full course and was renewed from 2nd July 1812 for the same period. That renewal may have included George Ingall who was a partner in 1816. Ingall died in 1822 and Cadman, without issue, the following year. The absence of registration of revised marks on these occasions suggests that the partnership provided for continuity between surviving partners and representatives of deceased partners.
The firm of Roberts, Cadman & Co. was succeeded by S Roberts, Smith & Co. who registered the mark
in November 1826, three months after
the commencement of the partnership which comprised Samuel
Roberts, his nephew Evan Smith, his cousin's son, Sidney Roberts
and William Sissons. The agreement was for ten years and
provision was made for the entry of Samuel's son, Samuel, if
desired. It is not known if Samuel junior entered to the
partnership under that provision, but he took his father's place
to become senior partner from July 1833 when he, Smith and
Sissons entered into a twelve year agreement, continuing to trade
as S Roberts, Smith & Co., and still in the premises in Eyre
Street.
Judging from the remaining output the firm ceased production of silver about 1822. None has been noted with the mark of S Roberts, Smith & Co. The firm Smith, Sissons & Co., which succeeded following the retirement of Samuel Roberts in 1848, did not even register a mark. The firm eventually became W & G Sissons who registered a silver mark in 1890.
John Lindley, Benjamin Vickers and William Lindley comprised the firm of John Lindley & Co. which registered the mark
in January 1788. William Lindley left the
partnership in 1794. Very little silver was sent for assay, the
first item, when they registered their mark, was an ink stand,
whilst some salts were sent in in 1790, It is possible the firm
were primarily cutlers, the occupation of a John Lindley who went
into partnership with William Gould for eleven years from July
1797. The main trade of Lindley & Gould was to be the
manufacture of pen knives and pocket knives.
A mark
was entered by William Lindley in
February 1797, it is not known if there was any connection to
John or the original William.
The partners in Henry Whitelock & Co. whose mark
was entered in September 1792 were
Henry Whitelock, James Ellis and Godfrey Machon. Although not
shown in the register entry William Whitelock may also have been
a partner at that time. He was included among the partners when
notice of dissolution appeared in September 1793. This signified
a partnership change with Henry Whitelock's place being taken by
William Tucker. The name was changed to James Ellis & Co. and
a mark
entered in October 1793.
Ellis left the partnership some time after April 1795. The three remaining partners did not register a mark; they were in partnership together only very briefly being succeeded in May 1796 by William Tucker & Co. who entered the mark
on 30th May 1796. The partners were
William Tucker, James Fenton, Godfrey Machon and William
Whitelock. This partnership appears to have been much more stable
than its predecessors continuing down to 1810, probably to the
end of a fourteen year term. Whitelock left but the remaining
partners continued the firm in the same style and re-entered
their original mark in October 1810 from Norfolk Street. In
December 1816 a mark
was registered by Fenton, Allanson
& Machon, also of Norfolk Street It is likely that Allanson
was the same man who in 1798 is noted as the agent for Tucker,
Fenton & Co. (though there was another Allanson working at
the same time as agent for Goodman, Gainsford & Co) and
possible that he was John Allanson who had been a partner in J T
Younge & Co. down to 1796
It is probable that the firm were succeeded by William Allanson & Co. who entered a mark
in August 1832
One of the handfull of Sheffield silversmiths whose mark comprised their full name was John Kay & Co. with the mark
which was struck in the register in March
1795 by John Kay, Richard Woofindale and George Marshall, a firm
of cutlers. Marshall had left by 1st March 1797 when Kay and
Woofindale were joined by Thomas Best, another cutler, as
manufacturers of knives and forks in the workshops of the two
original partners who were to be engaged principally in
manufacturing whilst Best was to be the bookkeeper and traveller.
The partnership was intended to run for seven years and although
it was profitable differences led to its being dissolved in March
1798. Best was bought out and Kay and Woofindale took over the
stock in trade and debts and probably continued to the end of the
envisaged seven year term as in March 1804 John Kay, of Meadow
Street, the address from which the original mark had been entered,
registered the mark
The firm of Goodman, Gainsford & Co. are first noted in April 1797 with an entry
registered by Alexander Goodman,
Robert Gainsford and George Fairbairn. Gainsford is the only one
of the three who has been noted prior to this, ending a brief
period of partnership with Luke Proctor & Co. in June 1795.
The significance of a further mark entered in January 1801
is not known. The names of the
registering partners are the same as previously entered. By 1805
they had recruited a further partner, James French, who was based
in London. The partnership was dissolved in 1808 and nothing
further is seen of Goodman or French. Gainsford entered the mark
in December
1808. It. is not known if he was then working on his own or
within the firm of Robert Gainsford & Co. which was dissolved
in 1816. Following the dissolution Gainsford entered into
partnership with Thomas Nicholson as Gainsford & Nicholson.
lf silver was being produced by these partnerships they must have
continued to use the mark of 1808. The firm was still in
existence in 1825.
* * *
Following the cessation of Goodman & Co. in 1808 Fairbairn joined John Wright, possibly the same who had entered
in October 1789, when he was making
silver blades. Wright & Fairbairn entered their mark
in March 1809. Nothing further is
known of them.
Henry Rock entered a mark
in July 1798; a mark which was re-registered
in February the following year in the
names of Henry Hewitt & Henry Rock. Nothing further is known
of Rock but it is assumed the partnership had ceased by 1808, in
September of which year the mark
was recorded by Thomas Nixon, Henry
Hewitt and Robert Fox, a partnership which was dissolved less
than three months later. It seems that Nixon then continued the
business on his own until 1st February 1810 when he entered into
a fourteen year partnership with James Weaver and Benjamin Rayner,
in premises which he occupied in Furnival Street. In March 1810
they paid £2,500 for a freehold in Union Street, an outlay which
may have been responsible for Rayner withdrawing from the
partnership in December that year. His place was probably taken
by George Hague, notice of the dissolution of whose partnership
with Nixon and Weaver was published in 1816, although Bankruptcy
proceedings had been commenced against both Weaver and Hague in
November 1812. It is thought the firm of Nixon & Co.
manufactured principally plated wares; only the one silver mark
was registered.
Nothing further is known of the firm John Fenton & Co. which registered the mark
in May 1799, than the names of the
partners as entered in the Register: John Fenton, John Whyott,
John Thornhill, John Higginbottom and Charles Hall. It is assumed
that they were succeeded by John Fenton, Mark Furniss, John White
and Robert Styring in the name of Fenton, Furniss & Co. This
was a short-lived partnership, commencing sometime in 1801 and
ending on 27 February 1802 when John Fenton, then of London, sold
his share to the others for £460. The value of this share seems
to indicate either a very small capitalisation or that heavy
losses had been sustained.
One wonders if John Fenton saw the writing on the wall for the firm, then under the style of Furniss, White & Co., had a Commission of Bankruptcy issued against it on 18th June 1802. Neither Fenton, Furniss & Co. nor Furniss, White & Co. entered separate marks, the speed of events may have overtaken them but it is more likely that they were exclusively plated workers. No silverware has been noted with the mark.
* * *
It seems probable, in view of the mark
registered by Furniss, Poles & Turner
in December 1810 that Mark Furniss returned to the trade, but
nothing further is known of the firm.
Richard Jewesson is first noted in April 1798 when, in partnership with Thomas Middleton, George Ashforth and George Frost, he entered a mark
If it was the same George Ashforth who was the principal of George Asforth & Co. from 1773 to 1812 then Jewesson, Middleton & Co. must have been undertaking a different aspect of the trade. It is thought the firm had a very short existence which may have been due to trading restrictions. Middleton and Frost do not appear again in the register, though the former was in a partnership with George Wilkinson which ceased in 1816.
Richard Jewesson, Isaac Bunting and Samuel Turner entered into a twenty-one year partnership with effect from 21st September 1799, to carry on the business of silver platers in the name of Jewesson, Bunting & Co., in the existing workshops of Jewesson. By April the following year Turner wanted to withdraw; it may be that he was having difficulty raising the £900 which each partner was to bring into the business, for Jewesson bought him out for £60, the amount which Turner had introduced by that date. The only silver mark relating to the partnership was
registered in the name of Richard
Jewesson only, on 10th July 1800. The firm continued to trade as
Jewesson, Bunting & Co. down to March 1803 when Jewesson, who
was then in London, agreed to purchase Bunting's share of the
business.
The mark
was entered in May 1818 by Benjamin Rooke
& Son. It is assumed this was the predecessor of either
Thomas Rooke Junior & Co, a partnership which when it was
dissolved in 1825 comprised Ann Garnett Rooke and Richard
Staveley, or, more likely, Rookes, Underdown & Wilkinson
which firm ceased in 1826 when the partners were Benjamin Rooke,
John Spooner Rooke, Thomas Underdown and Henry Wilkinson.
It was no doubt the two latter partners who registered the mark
for Underdown, Wilkinson & Co. in
November 1826. That partnership must have been shortlived for the
following year notice was given of the dissolution of a
subsequent partnership between Henry Wilkinson and James Hunt.
Whether Hunt had been part of the firm of Underdown, Wilkinson
& Co, or whether Wilkinson left that firm to found another
with Hunt, does not appear.
Following these brief partnerships Wilkinson is thought to have been associated with John Settle (See notes on the successors of John Winter & Co.) for a couple of years before founding a firm in his own name.
Thomas & James Creswick who registered a mark
on 29th
October 1810 may have been sons of James Creswick who had died in
1810 or prior whilst a partner in Smiths, Knowles, Creswick &
Co. That partnership continued to its full term, despite the
death of several of the partners, being finally dissolved on 1st
September 1810. It may be significant that the above mark was
registered just two months after that.
They appear to have been intent on founding a substantial concern from the first. In April 1811 Thomas took out a fourteen year lease on a London warehouse and by April 1816 they were insuring the stock and utensils in the warehouse for £3,000. Although the formal agreement for the new partnership of Thomas, James and Nathaniel Creswick, runnning from 1st September 1819, stated that they had for several years past been in partnership together it is thought the reference may only have been to Thomas and James. A mark in respect of the new partnership
was entered in October 1819. The
partnership continued to operate from existing premises in
Paternoster Row, the same address from which they entered two
subsequent marks:
in October 1832, and
in a five-lobed punch in August 1852.
There is no obvious reason for the new mark of 1832, the partners
in 1835, when they were insuring plated goods in the London
warehouse of Joshua Storrs, were still Thomas, James and
Nathaniel. A possible explanation is that one or more of them was
another generation of the family. A further mark entered in March
1853 in the firm's name,
in a four-lobed punch, may indicate that
Thomas had left the partnership. It seems likely that the firm
was succeeded by Creswick & Co. who entered the mark
also from Paternoster Row in September
1858 and a further mark
in March 1863 when they were located
at Sycamore Street.
The firm of George Battie & Brothers which in April 1801 registered the mark
was dissolved in 1804 when the partners
were George, James, William and Joseph Battie. George is thought
to have joined the firm of James Drabble & Co. and he or one
of his brothers may have been a partner in Battie, Howard &
Hawksworth otherwise nothing more is known of the family.
In 1815 Battie, Howard & Hawksworth registered their mark
The names of the partners are not
known, the Battie was probably one of the partners of George
Battie & Bros. which dissolved in 1804. It seems that at some
point the partnership changed its style to Howard, Battie &
Hawksworth, it appears in that form in the directory of 1822.
Output is noted from 1817 to 1832. No doubt their successors were
Howard & Hawksworth who registered
in 1835, for whom output is noted between
1835 and 1843.
Continue to the APPENDIX,
return to EDWARD LAW: SHEFFIELD SILVER,
or to Essay 2: SHEFFIELD SILVERSMITHS, PART 1
or to ESSAY 1: THE ORIGINS OF THE SILVER TRADE IN SHEFFIELD.
LINKS to:
Edward Law, interests, bibliography, and the Victorian prize medals of Huddersfield College.
Anastatic printing, some brief notes, relating to photograph and crest albums and Cowells of Ipswich.
Crest Collecting, research findings, album publishers and scans of crests.
The Sheffield Assay Office, where you will find details of their publications for sale.